OLYMPICS

OLYMPICS; I.O.C. Panel Widens Investigation Into an Ethics Official

By JERE LONGMAN

Published: March 7, 2000

The International Olympic Committee moved to further investigate Kevan Gosper, one of its most powerful members, in regard to the Salt Lake City bidding scandal yesterday. But a pronouncement by an Olympic official that the committee believed Gosper to be innocent of wrongdoing raised more questions about the I.O.C.'s credibility in examining possible ethical lapses by its own delegates.

Gosper, an Australian, resigned from the I.O.C.'s ethics commission yesterday. He stepped down as the commission decided to hire an independent investigator to explore whether trips that Gosper and his family made to Salt Lake City violated I.O.C. guidelines on excessive travel and hospitality during the bid process for the 2002 Winter Games.

But even before the investigator was named, a member of the ethics commission said he believed Gosper was not guilty. Javier Perez de Cuel lar, a former secretary general of the United Nations, told reporters in Lausanne, Switzerland, that he believed Gosper's case should be thoroughly reviewed, but also said, ''We have a feeling Mr. Gosper is totally innocent of the allegations.''

Such prejudgment calls into question the I.O.C.'s interest in examining possible wrongdoing by its most influential members. It is Perez de Cuellar, not the independent investigator, who will be in charge of the Gosper case and who will ultimately issue a report to the I.O.C. ethics commission regarding the Gosper family trips to Salt Lake City, an I.O.C. spokesman said yesterday.

The I.O.C. has come under scathing criticism in its Salt Lake City investigation for forcing out mostly members from developing nations while giving only warnings to more powerful and popular members such as Kim Un-yong of South Korea and Phil Coles of Australia. Six members were expelled and four were forced to resign.

The 66-year-old Gosper, one of four I.O.C. vice presidents and a driving force behind the creation of the ethics commission, has often been mentioned as a possible successor to Juan Antonio Samaranch as I.O.C. president. This investigation may have ended those hopes.

The I.O.C. will not whitewash its investigation of Gosper, said Franklin Servan-Schreiber, a spokesman for the international committee.

''There is no conspiracy theory anymore,'' he said on a conference call. ''It is very difficult for this to be quashed without any repercussions. The world is watching.''

The investigation concerns a trip that Gosper's family made to a Utah ski resort in 1993 and Gosper's official I.O.C. visit in 1995 before Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Games.

Bid officials claimed expenses of $31,000 for the trips, but Gosper has accused bidders of wildly inflating the cost. Dick Pound, the Canadian I.O.C. delegate who investigated the Salt Lake City scandal, has said that Gosper was entrapped.

Salt Lake City documents indicate that Gosper insisted on repaying the costs for his family's 1993 trip, but no evidence has been made public indicating that he did. Servan-Schreiber said he had been told that bank documents existed showing repayment, but he did not say whether the cost of all or part of the trip was reimbursed.

Gosper said he was resigning from the eight-member ethics panel to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.